1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to vehicular test equipment and, more specifically, to a wireless communication system which may be used for diagnostic examination and programming of vehicular control systems.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the past, in the automotive industry, diagnostic evaluation of a vehicle control system was performed through the use of test equipment which was directly coupled to a specific control system to be tested. Over time, vehicle control systems became more and more complex. One reason for the increase complexity is due to computerization of the control systems. Today, most vehicles have one or more microcontrollers which are used to control the operation of a plurality of control systems located within the vehicle. However, on board diagnostics are still accessed through the use of test equipment which require that the test connectors be directly coupled to the microcontroller or to the control system to be tested. As vehicle control systems continue to become more complex, the cost of providing enough connections to properly observe the control system is becoming cost prohibitive. Furthermore, after repeated interrogation connector cycles, the connectors have a tendency to lose strength and fail thereby causing false and misleading diagnostics.
Therefore, a need existed to provide an improved system and method for diagnostic evaluation of vehicle control systems. The improved system and method must provided a wireless two way interface between the test equipment and a vehicle's on board computer system (i.e., microcontrollers that control the vehicle control systems). The wireless two way interface would allow for a reliable, dynamic, diagnostic environment as well as provide a link to program the vehicle's on board computer system.